In statements to the Lusa agency, PCP deputy António Filipe said he hopes that, after today's debate, "all parliamentary groups assume their responsibilities and that no one is responsible for preventing this parliamentary inquiry".

"We are talking about something that has harmed, in a scandalously serious way, the Portuguese State, the national interest, both from the financial point of view and from the point of view of the Portuguese State's control conditions over its airport space", he stressed.

The PCP deputy stressed that the Court of Auditors report that analysed the privatisation of ANA, released in January, is "devastating regarding the consequences" of that business and reveals that the initial estimate of the price of ANA was "over three billion euros", but the sale "was made for little more than a third of that: 1,127 million".

"We are talking about a tremendous loss of the State's financial interests, in addition to the fact that the management of national airports, by Vinci - with this concession being for 50 years -, is proving to be disastrous for the public interest, as the airport of Lisbon has been scandalously increasing airport taxes", he added.

On the other hand, António Filipe also considered that it is important to clarify "why the 2012 dividends, obtained by ANA, while still a public company, were offered to Vinci".

"It is also important to investigate possible conflicts of interest on the part of administrations. Suffice it to recall that there was an administration that was appointed by the State after the privatisation had been decided and that Vinci announced its intention to renew it, which obviously clearly calls into question its impartiality and its defence of the public interest", he argued.

The deputy recalled that the deal, concluded in 2013, was made by a PSD/CDS Government that had Pedro Passos Coelho as Prime Minister, Vítor Gaspar and Álvaro Santos Pereira as Ministers of Finance and Economy, and Sérgio Monteiro as Secretary of State for Infrastructures, and considered that they have "a heavy responsibility" for the impacts it is having.

"And it is important that the Assembly of the Republic also assumes the responsibility of conducting an inquiry into this investigation of responsibilities. From the outset, whoever refuses to carry out this inquiry, certainly something weighs on their conscience in relation to a situation like this", he said.

Asked how he reacts to the PS's argument that it is necessary to use all parliamentary instruments to obtain information on a matter before resorting to the "atomic bomb" of the parliamentary inquiry - an argument that the party invoked last week to vote against BE's and PAN's proposals for an inquiry committee into the Global Media Group -, the deputy considered that "it makes no sense at all".

"In all legislatures there have been several parliamentary inquiries. Therefore, if we were talking about an atomic bomb, we would have blown up dozens of times", he replied, stressing that the proposed inquiry "is fully justified".

"I do not undervalue the inquiry proposal that was made last week, but objectively we are talking about realities with an incomparable dimension: here we are talking about billions of euros, about the management of all national airports for 50 years", he said.

The deputy argued that we are "facing a scandal of such magnitude that whoever rejects inquiring into this matter will have to explain this position very well and assume this responsibility".

"Because, as they say, those who owe nothing fear nothing", he added.

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